Sibling Rivalry
by DarkGidora
Summary: Lucas seized the opportunity to let all his violent impulses run free in the wake of the storm. Zoe spent three years being pushed to the limits of her sanity by the thing wearing a little girl's face. And Eveline? She just wanted to play a game with her brother and sister.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Resident Evil is the property of Capcom. I claim no ownership rights therein.

* * *

This was taking forever.

He sat on the steps to the yard, looking at the trailer. Took a swig of Johnnie Walker blue label; Old Man'd kill him if he knew Lucas was in his stash, but he was pretty sure he could replace all his booze with varnish and dad wouldn't notice the difference. His parents no longer had any appreciation for the good things in life. Just hung around the house, eating shitty rotten food, serving that little…

He'd wanted out of the goddamn house for a long time. Hell, before the storm. Before Eveline, right? Doing fucking yardwork on a goddamn _plantation_ sucked. Wanted to be out a long goddamn time ago, and it just didn't fucking add up; he was bright, good at building stuff, gotten a degree from a good school, but he just couldn't get fucking hired. Had to stick around; under the Old Man's roof he had to follow the Old Man's rules, fucking jackass. He'd vent to Ma, she'd have some halfassed job search suggestion that wouldn't fucking work.

Now? The original house was fucking totaled, rotting. The new one was slightly better, but that wasn't saying much. Plus, the cellar and parts of the upstairs were starting to look real long in the tooth, too. He wanted out.

But he had a job to do. One with a big payoff promised. He had to just keep his eyes and ears open while the Boss's men wanted to know what Evie was up to, how she was doing. What the folks were doing. Keep doing that, and sooner or later he'd be out of this hole. Sooner rather than later, it looked like. Eveline wasn't doing all that well.

Still, he was trapped in a rotting house, stuck waiting on his little "sister" whenever Ma and the Old Man were too busy running other errands for her. Had to do it to maintain the 'façade of normalcy', the boss had said. Phones and internet didn't work either; aside from e-mails to the bosses they didn't want anything getting out. Really, whenever the folks weren't creating a mess he had to clean up it got real fucking boring.

Yeah, there was plenty of time to tinker and screw around with his projects. But it got boring. Testing out his inventions on watermelons or mannequins was fun and all, but really, it all got samey.

Of course, if he was lucky, he'd get a chance to have some fun with the "recruits" Evie wanted for her family. He didn't know why the kid kept at it; nobody really worked out. Granted, a lot of the time it was due to his parents losing their tempers or the guests getting a bit too clever and having to be put down, sometimes with Zoe sticking her nose into their business, but so far Eveline's "family" remained just her, the three of them, and maybe Mia and Zoe.

Kinda. Mia was either freaked out and trying to get away, apparently, she used to work for the same people he was working for; they weren't too keen on rescuing her, or she was just as crazy as Ma and the Old Man. She was Evie's favorite, sometimes he thought the folks resented her a bit for it. Whatever; the more she bugged Mia, the less she bugged him.

He had half a mind to ask the bosses what they wanted to do with Zoe. Since somehow, she wasn't with the program, despite what Eveline could do to a person and upwards of two years' time. Guess being a stubborn bitch just couldn't be brainwashed outta her. Evie's makers would have to figure that she could be important, but didn't seem interested for whatever reason.

Evie was her usual annoying little brat self, but she didn't suspect anything. Definitely didn't know that he was onto her little trick. Ma and the Old Man still treated her like the little girl she acted like. Had to watch the language around the little bitch, and bit his tongue when they talked about her illness like she wasn't a goddamn thirteen-year-old senior citizen. Hell, maybe she was younger than that; she came to them looking ten and was now eighty, who's to say how old she was?

Anyhoo, she shot up in age fast, and unevenly. Her hair turned white long before he spine got bent and her face got wrinkled, though those happened pretty quickly. And she still acted like a goddamn little kid. He could barely stand little kids, especially if their parents spoiled them. And Evie? The Old Man and Ma spoiled her rotten, moreso than the food they'd all been eating. Hell, he had to get in on the act, keep up the charade, and avoid being punished by his parents. Only instead of toys and movies, what little Eveline wanted was more and more people.

And he'd have to clean up the mess. Ma and Pa weren't too concerned with staying quiet, and more than once he'd have to chase some idiot through the bayou in the middle of the night to drag them back.

Sometimes he just wanted to get behind her wheelchair and give little sis a big ol' push down the steps. But again, duty called; couldn't do that. Had to play nice and avoid suspicion; both Evie realizing he wasn't with the program, and make sure nobody outside looked too closely. He tried, tried to convince the boss that with the number of people they were nabbing, that'd eventually fall apart. Some dumb cop was already snooping around every so often, ever since that one time, so they all had to play hide-and-seek to make sure the place still looked abandoned. Might as well cut losses and clean up the mess, but nope, had to play along.

So no pushing Eveline down the stairs. Had to make due with tying one of them college girls to an office chair and sending it careening into the basement. Not exactly a Goddamn Picasso like some of his projects, and definitely not getting rid of Evie, but damn it was fun. Especially when one of Evie's toothy little pets came on up to investigate the racket. That was priceless.

Okay, the job was annoying a lot of the time, but there were some definite upsides…

* * *

It had seemed like forever.

Almost nightly, well, not nightly, just whenever she fell asleep, Zoe had the dream. The day after the storm. They were all gathered around the table, Dad talking about the mess the storm made. He and Lucas were gonna check on the boathouse, she and mom were supposed to check on the house. He glossed over the original house, the one that sat on these lands for over a century; Mom had gotten misty-eyed seeing the state it was in right after the storm. All that family history... Dad assured her they could fix it, but it still hurt Mom. Lucas was his usual sullen self.

It was a normal breakfast for them. Maybe unusual that they were all at the table at once; not flitting in at different times to grab a bowl of cereal. But it was normal. Dad and Mom were themselves, kind, hard-working, willing to help anyone who came to their door, and Lucas… even if he was messed up back then, it was infinitely better than now.

Then she showed up.

Eveline was there. Eveline hadn't been there. They hadn't _found_ Eveline yet. But she was there.

She was always trying to creep in.

It wasn't just that dream, although that one happened the most. Other times; thinking back when she broke her ankle, or when she was a little girl with the flu and Mama was checking up on her, Eveline would show up. Sometimes she's stay on the periphery, ruining a fond memory just by being there, an out-of-place monster invading her warm memories. Her just being there at graduation, or that family camping trip to Yellowstone would drain it of all its meaning.

Other times the dreams would go off track. Mom would start that maniacal cackle and lean in close, tearing at her throat while insects spilled out of her mouth and nostrils, crawling all over. Or instead of helping her up when she fell off the swing and hurt her ankle, Dad would grind his foot on the injury and laugh at her tears. Or Lucas… he was always still an asshole, just instead of just teasing her and doing petty sibling rivalry bullshit, it'd be worse. A lot worse.

Eveline was always trying to creep in. Whenever Zoe let her guard down, Eveline would show up. The trick was not to be caught off guard by her, which worked if she had a task at hand to work on. Something to focus on instead of that thing letting out a sing-songy "Siiiiister". Scrounging up supplies. Trying to talk the next person. Running from Mom or Dad. Sometimes she'd try and find Mia, although that was like a game of roulette; sometimes that woman would be on board with getting out but had no memory of anything helpful. Other times… she'd lost count of the times Mia'd tried to take a knife to her right after panicking and talking about getting out of the place.

But as dangerous as dealing with her family and Mia was, it kept her busy. When she wasn't doing anything, it got worse. Then Evie could show up much more easily. Get in much more easily. Steal her way into Zoe's head and show her all the sick things Dad and Mom and Lucas were doing and trying to make her do the same.

It felt like forever since she could last relax.

She couldn't leave, either. She tried, God she tried. She'd realized there was no way to save her parents or Lucas, and the best idea was to get away. A few times she'd managed to slip past the front, she'd have fucking walked to New Orleans if she had to in order to get away, but then things happened. Pressure would build behind her eyes and fire would run through her veins. It was gradual and obvious; the further she went, the worse she got. And one of them, usually Ma, ranting about her being an ingrate, would invariably show up and she'd have to give up. Eveline didn't want her to leave, even if she wasn't any fun to play with. She couldn't leave the family.

But she had to. Evie was wearing her down. Little by little, Eveline was managing to gain more and more of a foothold. It wasn't that she was alright while her family was insane; she was just getting there slower than the rest of them. And she didn't want to end up like them.

* * *

He was thinking.

Evie was going, sooner or later. Good riddance. He looked forward to her kicking. A big payoff, getting out of this shithole, and he'd be set. Hell, he had goddamn superpowers now. Maybe he wasn't as strong as the old man, but he was still strong enough to set up that rock trap by himself. And as much as losing an arm sucked, it'd suck a lot more if it was permanent. It'd be fun to figure out just what he could do when it wasn't jumping at the call of a bratty old woman. There was a whole world out there to play around with, a whole lot of people in the game when the deck was stacked in his favor.

He took a swig of whisky. First, he was going to fucking empty out a liquor store. After that…

Well, the possibilities were endless for him. Nice fat bank account and absolutely no responsibilities. There was a lot of things he could've been doing had he not had to stick around here. A lot of places he'd wanted to see that he never had gotten around to, because he was stuck here. Not just with Eveline, of course, but before her. Vegas, New York, Indianapolis. Plenty of places he'd rather be. He'd miss the place of course, lord knew how he could get nostalgic, but once he was outta here, he wasn't ever coming back.

Of course, being stuck here gave him some new hobbies he'd get to try out on the road.

Electricity was pretty underwhelming, all things considered. The dancing when the juice hit them was amusing, of course, but other than that you'd get a burn. And while he'd been able to fix up some pretty satisfactory generators, the fact they hadn't paid an electric bill on this rathole limited just how much power he could use. It'd be interesting to see just how much the voltage increase would help.

Stabbings, crushings, and maulings by Evie's little pets were usually spectacular. That thing with the rocks was fucking awesome, come to think of it. Look on the guy's face right when he realized he hit the tripwire, right when he thought he got out of the barn, was hilarious. Like Wile E. Coyote when he just realized he was off a cliff. Except he wasn't gonna be around for another shot at the roadrunner.

He tried catching something poisonous from the bayou, see what happened when somebody was bit. Was it the red-and-yellow-and-black snake or the red-and-black-and-yellow snake that was the Coral Snake? Wasn't the one he got, probably. He had trouble coaxing it to bite anyone, then it got moldy and died.

There was so much more to try when he got out of this house. He'd never seen much snow, and honestly, he'd heard interesting things about what frostbite did to people. When he got out, he'd have to try it to someone one winter.

When he got out.

That made him sad. He was getting himself so excited about leaving this place, then he remembered Evie was still alive, he still had a job to do for his douchebag bosses, Ma and Pa and Mia were still making things as complicated as possible. And sooner or later, they'd bring back some new people, and _he'd_ be the one stuck with disposing of them when they didn't work out.

Admittedly, that'd be fun.

There were so many things to think about.

* * *

She'd been considering it for a while.

The gun was an old .45 automatic. An "American classic" according to her father; God made man, John Browning made them equal. He had made sure she and Lucas had a healthy respect for firearms growing up; she'd shot off the .45 at the range more than a few times. She pulled back the slide, bullet was in the chamber.

She was going to get Eveline out of her head.

She took in a deep breath and opened her mouth. Taste of metal on her tongue as she tried to work out the best angle. Brainstem controlled breathing, right? Straight back would work. Then again, a .45 tearing through her skull would probably do the trick no matter the angle. Somewhere in the back of her mind, Mom… as she used to be, not like she was now, was scolding her for getting mud and grass stains on her Church clothes.

There was a video, Lucas had found it on the internet years back. Showed it to her, he was always showing her screwed up bullshit he found on the computer. The video was of politician giving a rant, before pulling out a gun, putting it in his mouth, and pulling the trigger. He had a big hole in the top of his head, and blood was leaking from it and his nose. She cringed a bit as her brother let out a whoop. She asked him what movie it was from.

Apparently, it wasn't from a movie.

She smelled oil; she had freshly cleaned the gun. Cleaning guns gave her something to focus on. Her hands trembled a bit. She rested her finger on the trigger.

Evie was watching. Out the corner of her eye, she could see that thing leaning forward, looking excited. Not that she would've expected the psycho to try and talk her down, but she didn't have a headache, didn't feel a burn. Evie didn't want her to leave, but was just going to let her…

…Fuck.

Dad had carved himself open, hadn't he? Tried to drown Mom, then took a knife and slid it across his chest. Then there were the times she heard gunfire in the house when they had kidnapped someone. And Lucas stomping out to the barn, holding a severed arm… his severed arm… and cursing the old man under his breath like Dad had thrown out one of his projects was pretty common. She once had to defend herself from Mia when the switch got flipped, and a few hours later, she saw the woman, one-hundred percent "fine", as much as things could be fine here, sane, and being chased by Ma. Things that should've killed them or left them crippled didn't bug them.

She coughed, the front sight of the gun pressing into her tongue.

She took a course on bioterrorism once. She needed an elective, and with the way the world was looking, the course looked useful. It wasn't, but she did get an A on the final research assignment. One of the few things that had stuck was that a lot of monsters that could survive a gunshot wound to the head. Some could even get better from it right fast.

Monsters.

That's what Mom, Dad, and Lucas were.

That's what she was. Whatever made Evie tick, whatever turned her parents and brother into murderous psychopaths, whatever twisted Mia into a rampaging berserker, it was in her.

She pulled the gun out, running her tongue along her top teeth. Took a deep breath and glared at Evie.

The fucking thing _pouted_. "Red's my favorite color."

Zoe let go of the gun, letting it drop to the floor. Ran a hand through her hair. Did _she_ want to kill herself, and Evie just wanted to watch? Or did _Evie_ want her to shoot herself, and she went along with it? She fished out her lighter and scoured the room for a cigarette. She needed a fucking smoke. "Maybe not today."

"C'mon, you'd get better!" Evie whined. That was good. Her being a brat made it easier, she wasn't trying to sneak in anymore, she was just bashing her face against a gate. "If you'd just try it, you'd see! You'd be fine. You'd be okay, Dad's tried it!"

"My father just does any dumb thing you want him to now, don't he?" Zoe muttered, flicking the lighter. The flame danced, and for a second Zoey had an urge to just burn it; burn the fucking trailer and herself inside it. She took a deep breath, dropped her cigarette, and closed the lighter. Maybe smoking could wait a minute. "He and Ma and Lucas."

" _Our_ daddy." Eveline corrected. Then corrected again. " _My_ daddy."

Zoey grimaced. She was angry. This fucking thing. It stole her parents. It stole her brother. It was doing its best to rob her of everything. And she would have _none_ of that. Maybe there wasn't a way out. Oh yes, there was that serum that Mia wrote a note about; the one that she wasn't able to get the ingredients for because of Ma. Would it work? Maybe, maybe not. She didn't really think it could work, much less she'd be able to get to make it. There wasn't really any rational hope left that she could get free.

But fuck it, she was going to hold out, if only to spite the little monster. "Get out of my trailer."

"Make me" Eveline said, crossing her arms and grinning. Looking smug and petulant and Zoe hated nothing more than her. Zoe picked the gun back up, and glared at Evie again. This wasn't real. The thing in front of her was just Evie messing with her head. She wasn't _actually_ in the room with Zoe. So she'd stay in the room as long as she wanted, because Zoe couldn't kick her out.

Eveline's eyes brightened when Zoe picked up the gun, but she deflated when Zoe took a deep breath and headed out.

* * *

He was thinking things out. The rock trap was fun, but it was time to come up with something new. He wanted something new. Maybe it was time to try something with fire? They did do a fair share of cremations, hell, fire was fun. Even before this whole thing, he liked fire. But he'd never torched someone alive. Hm… next time they had some new people, he'd see about just soaking them in gasoline and lighting them. Nah, the best part was when they got themselves killed thinking they had a way out… what if….

His careful deliberations on his next project were interrupted the door to Zoe's trailer being kicked open and her stomping out of it. His sister glared at him, then stomped off, towards the ruined old house, cautiously looking over her shoulder to make sure he wasn't pursuing.

Eveline's shrill whining, suddenly right behind him, made him jump. "Zoey's being mean to me!"

"She's like that a lot, Evie." His face twitched. She startled him a lot; something to do with being able to be anywhere, any time, he guessed. He looked around; the old woman wasn't nearby, it was just the kid version of Eveline. The hallucination. "Always stubborn. You know that."

"It's not fair. She never does anything fun!"

He couldn't deny that. Zoe was still herself. Fucking holier-than-thou. Didn't seem to even realize there were no consequences for her actions… she'd be a lot more tolerable if she wasn't always trying to fuck things up. Although, honestly, it was endlessly amusing fucking with her; leave a severed arm in her room in the house, leaving a radio playing his "greatest hits" on full blast out of her trailer, that sort of thing.

Still, if it was annoying Evie, he'd have to play ball and be the good big brother. "What did she even do this time?"

"She was going to shoot herself, then decided not to when she found out I was watching, she stopped!"

Maybe it was the alcohol talking, but that was _hilarious_. Zoey was the mean one for not letting Eveline goad her into killing herself. Well, that'd would've been the end of one headache.

"Stop laughing!" Eveline pouted. "Daddy did it, and he's okay! And you've lost your arm how many times? She'd be fine! And she won't even try it."

Once again, he wondered what'd happen if he tracked the old woman down and tossed her down the stairs.

Honestly, he was surprised Zoe hadn't tried to off Eveline herself. Like, what did she have to lose? Mom and Dad already couldn't stand her… heh, her being the black sheep ever since Evie came was a nice change of pace. But nope, Zoe just sulked around the manor, dodging their parents whenever they took umbrage with her. For their parts, Ma and Pa would talk a great game about punishing her for being such an ingrate and where did they go wrong and blah fucking blah, but really didn't follow up.

Fuck, as a practical matter he'd probably ended up on the receiving end of their parent's wrath more often than Zoe did. Sucked having to stay close.

Eveline interrupted his thoughts again. "She's never any fun!"

Why keep her around then? Evie probably could've killed her, or gotten Ma and Pa to get serious about disciplining Zoe, but all that happened was she'd piss them off, run or hide away for a while, never actually escape or call the cops or anything, then return to skulking about like a skittish cat. He bit his tongue and asked Evie. "And what do you want me to do?"

"Make her play a game! _Something_ " She whined. God, she was annoying. "Like you do with other people."

He opened his mouth to say that he didn't have anything ready at the moment then paused. Now, _there_ was a thought. Most of his playmates were only good for one puzzle. After that, they'd just be trash to get rid of. Girl at the bottom of the stairs wasn't getting up, guy with the rocks wasn't getting up. But Ma, Pa, Mia, and he were all sterner stuff than that; he'd been dismembered enough times to know that. Of course, there was no way of sending them through a gauntlet without ending up hacked to pieces himself. But Zoe… nobody in the family would mind if something bad happened to Zoe.

It had been a _long_ time since he played games with Zoe. He used to end up having to occupy her when Ma and Dad were busy, when they were grade schoolers. Checkers was fun, he never bothered to learn the rules of Chess, but checkers was great. He was better than it than she was, and never failed to suggest a rematch after he won. Until a few years down the road she started to win as much as she lost. He'd had better things to do then.

Huh, Eveline was making him all nostalgic now. His lips curled upwards. Zoe had to be infected, no way she could've spent so much time here without that. So they'd play a game, and have a rematch. And again, and again. "Zoe's headed for the old house?"

"Uh-huh." The little girl said, hands on hips, looking surprisingly serious. It was something he did a lot, ask her a question he knew the answer to. Evie "helping" him made her feel important, and that kept him in her good graces. He was the dumbfuck she'd brainwashed into being his big brother after all, so of course she had to think she had all the ideas.

He drained the rest of the bottle, wiped his mouth with his sleeve, then hurled it at the trailer. Maybe he should've saved it; filled it with something and slipped it back in dad's liquor cabinet, but eh. The wheels were spinning now. They'd start off small, then scale up… then he reminded himself, first things first, he had to catch her, and given what Evie said, she had a fucking _gun_. The old man might find getting shot hilarious, but he didn't exactly understand the appeal. Work smarter,harder after all. "Keep an eye on her for me, okay? I'm gonna try something."

He was so happy, even Eveline's emphatic "Hurry up." Didn't sour his mood.

He turned and headed for his warehouse. Before Evie could protest, he explained "I've gotta get some things ready. But don't you worry, Evie, I have a plan."

What he had were some disjointed ideas that were about evenly split between doing violence to Zoe and doing violence to Eveline. Of course, since he couldn't get deal with Evie, that just meant he'd have to apply those ideas to Zoe. What kinda big brother would he be if he didn't give his sister a hard time?

Just something to think about to pass the time.

* * *

Author's Note:

I wrote up two little pieces for a thread on Spacebattles shortly after the REVII came out focusing on the Baker Siblings, then realized that combining the two might be a bit interesting.

Then I promptly got incredibly lazy and did nothing with it.

Then Capcom went and announced _End of Zoe_ , and I went "…waaaait, didn't I have something involving bad things happening to Zoe on my flash drive?"

Lemme know what you think.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer** : Resident Evil belongs to Capcom.

* * *

He sat at the workbench, ticking off supplies. He had plenty of wires, needed a casing. Metal clanged as he overturned a coffee can full of unsorted nails and screws. Gunpowder… gunpowder… he picked up a can, only to growl in annoyance and pitch it over his shoulder when he found it empty. Goddamn it, he had to have another can around her somewhere.

"Hurry up." Evie whined, emphasizing each syllable dramatically as he worked.

"I'm goin' as fast as I can, Evie" Lucas said, opening and closing a drawer. He was wondering where that wrench had gone, he picked it up and set it on its proper place, hanging alongside a few of its brethren. "This is delicate work, you see."

"When will you be done?" God damnit, was Evie really going to start going 'are we there yet?' over and over.

"Now, this'll take a bit of time. Wouldn't want…" he paused. Evie didn't care if he got hurt, so 'wouldn't want accident' wouldn't convince her. "…well, it has to be done carefully or else we won't have Zoe to play with."

"Yeah, well, she'll get away if you take too long."

He did not need her hassling him at the moment. Right now, concentration was very important. Needed to stay on task. He got off the stool and dropped down to the floor, groping around underneath the workbench. He let out a laugh when his hand found a metal can, and as he pulled it out. Shaking it to confirm it wasn't empty, he got up and dumped it in the coffee can.

Then, as an afterthought, he held the coffee can at the edge of the table and swept the nails and screws it used to contain back into the can.

* * *

She ran her tongue her front teeth again.

Somewhere in the old house was a D-Series arm. A gift from Evie to mom.

Was Evie just stringing her along? She _thought_ she wasn't crazy like her folks were, like Lucas was, like Mia could be. But she was seeing things. She couldn't leave. All she did was try to help people get away from the family and help her find a cure for herself, but it always ended badly. And Eveline liked things ending badly. Maybe what she was doing now was just Evie watching her run in circles…

No. No, Evie didn't control her. She _couldn't_ be under Evie's control. She couldn't think that. She needed to find the arm and get out.

The main floor had a huge hole in it, had the hole in it since the storm. She squeezed through a gap in the wall, holding her breath as something skittered along her bare arm. Tiny little legs motored about her skin as she kept her eyes shut, not wanting to see whatever it was. When she got through the gap, she couldn't help but reflexively brush her arms off while sucking in a breath. Something buzzed on a table nearby.

A wasp the size of her hand ran a foreleg through its mandibles.

Ma always had a thing about wasps. Not a phobia, definitely not a phobia. When possible she and Lucas were to not bother them, and if you couldn't, try to shoo them outside, or catch them and release them outside. Wasps ate pests, and wouldn't bug you if you didn't bug them.

She'd seen newcomers come into the house, and later get dragged out swollen and still. Maybe with a few more wasps buzzing around.

So she gave the wasp a wide berth.

It lifted off and she held her breath. It lazily circled then buzzed over the hole in the floor. Zoe let out a sigh of relief. She continued, slowly, doing her best to remember which floorboards creaked and which didn't, slowly slinking across the floor.

Up the staircase, and she walked around the house. She was meticulous, searching around and under everything she could find. Old typewriter, old telephone, underneath the little table in the room right across from the stairs. She walked the darkened hallway, her lighter providing pathetic, flickering illumination. Did they always have this much junk? Various bric-a-brac; children's toys, cages.

Her foot crumpled on some paper, and she bent down to pick up a crude, barely more than stick figures sketch. Evie in the middle, holding hands with Mia; with long dark hair. Momma, dad, Lucas circled around them. A few of her pets? And Zoe? She assumed she was the collection of limbs the monsters were feasting on.

Taking her lighter to the sketch and dumping the thing in a metal wastepaper bin was petty. But satisfying.

She was looking for an arm; if it was anything like the head in her trailer. Black slime dripped from the walls. Like the wasp, she gave it a wide berth and glanced at it with suspicion. She'd seen those monsters just pop out of the mold. She was getting nowhere fast. Where would Mama hide an arm?

She heard the floorboards creak. A light shined at the end of the hallway, and Zoe's heart skipped a beat. She rushed to duck underneath a table.

"Zoe?" Mama's voice was harsher than it should've been. "I know you're in here, girl. Don't make me find you, Zoe."

An angry buzzing punctuated that last point.

"You're trying to steal Evie's gift, aren't you?!" The light was getting brighter. She could smell the kerosene. "You're always stirring up trouble for us, aren't you?"

She spotted Mama's bare feet against the floor, and bit her tongue and tried to ignore what Mama was saying. It wasn't her. It was Evie. It wasn't her. It was Evie. The buzzing was loud, but Mama's voice was quite clear over it.

"Evie told me you didn't want to play with her earlier. You stuck up little _bitch_." She stamped her foot for emphasis. "You skulk around here like a feral cat, making trouble with whoever walks through the door, and you reject your own goddamn family, and you… you…"

Something crawled across hand and stopped. She tried not to cringe as the centipede wound its way up her arm, dozens spindly legs tapping their way up her shoulder and neck and across her face. She shut her eyes and held her breath.

Mama continued to rant.

This was a mistake. This had been a mistake. She needed a _plan_ to find the arm, not just heading into this house. She hadn't been thinking straight, and was now stuck with Mama ranting five feet away. Her hand went to the gun.

The centipede dropped from its perch on her head to the ground and skittered away. She opened her eyes to see it skittering towards a pale pair of feet in a circle of illumination. Those feet wheeled around.

She scrambled from under the table as Mama went to flip it; she ended up on her back, gun pointed at Mama. A look of surprise came across her face and for a brief second, Zoe saw the same woman who baked cookies and walked her to school and she hesitated and then Mama was on top of her, hands on her throat.

"You jealous, thoughtless, ungrateful child?! Where did we go wrong?"

The gun skittered across the hallway. Zoe groped for anything, her hand wrapping around something that felt solid, and she slammed it against his head, dislodging the shrieking monster on her chest. She scrambled to her feet, managing to pick up the gun as she ran.

Mama was hollering and swearing and calling her all sorts of names, and the buzzing grew louder.

Zoe turned the corner and half ran, half-fell down the stairs, hearing maniacal shrieking behind her. She looked over her shoulder as bobbing lantern light reached the top of the stairs. Forcing herself to her feet, she ran to the ragged hole in the floor and jumped.

* * *

She made it back to the path, panting heavily. She took a look back at the old house, half-expecting Mama to burst through the doors, shrieking like a banshee at any minute. She tried, and failed to ignore what she had said; that it was Evie, not her mother saying those things. But heard the words in her mother's voice. She saw the scowl on her mother's face.

She fought back tears.

"Maybe if you behaved better, mother wouldn't be so mad at you." Evie suggested. Zoe shuddered at hearing that. The thing had left her alone long enough to find her way back to the path. "I know you're not happy they hate you."

"Shut up." She hated how plaintive her voice sounded. She turned her back on Evie and started walking back to her trailer. She'd keep at it. She'd get the stupid arm, make the stupid cure and get Evie out of her fucking head.

"You know, they'd accept you if you just behaved, sister." The thing said, keeping pace with her. She was practically skipping.

"I'm not your sister."

"Nuh-uh." Evie corrected. "You're mine. You all are."

Zoe raised the gun at the thing wearing a child's face. Evie was not particularly concerned. She had worked out a while ago that at least sometimes when Evie was there, annoying her, she wasn't _actually_ there. She was just in Zoe's head. Shooting would do nothing. Still, she kept the pistol trained on the thing as she headed back to her trailer.

There was a slight resistance against her leg as she continued to walk at shin level. She loocked down to see a nearly-invisible wire break.

 _Click_.

She looked at Evie, who had the broadest grin she had ever seen on her face. And a second later there was a flash and everything went dark.

She woke up lying on her left side in the vegetation by the path to the old house. Her head swam and her ears were ringing. She tried to prop herself back up, then pain flared up her right side from her knee to her shoulder and her arm gave and she fell back with a scream that she couldn't hear. She looked down and screamed again when she saw the nails and screws and blood.

Fucking Christ.

Bent, rusty hardware was sticking out of her. She disbelievingly reached towards her mangled leg and touched a bolt, buried headfirst inside her thigh. That was a mistake. She inaudibly yelled her head off.

She tried to focus through the pain. Dad would just chase her. Mom would, too, or she'd be chased by a swarm of bugs. Evie wouldn't use a fucking bomb. Lucas usually stayed out of her way, and tinkered, making things…

She heard it, faintly over the ringing in her ears. Slow clapping. While she struggled to keep her head steady, managed to lock her gaze on Lucas, striding up to her. He was laughing; she couldn't hear that but she knew the hyena-like laughter he'd have when he bragged about some things he had done, and he came closer.

He found his work so goddamn hilarious.

She forced herself to her feet, this time hearing her own screaming as things that were broken inside of herself ground against one another. One step, then another.

She always had managed to get away from them when the going got rough. She could always run, knew places to hide that Ma and Pa wouldn't follow. She couldn't leave, but she could always get away. Except right now. She managed a bunch of shaky, off balance steps, each one causing blinding pain. She took a look behind her and tripped and fell. Like one of the damsels in distress in one of Lucas's stupid horror movies.

She picked herself up in time for Lucas to wrap a hand around her right wrist; and she stumbled off balance as she felt him squeeze a bit of metal lodged under her skin just a _bit_ deeper. She managed a hoarse, semi-articulate "Let me go."

He grabbed her other wrist and she couldn't break free. Like they were back at the playground as kids and he wanted to drag her into a stupid idea that would just get one of them hurt. She pulled and tugged and he didn't let go. He just stood there and grinned and said something she couldn't quite make out over the ringing in her ears. The grin on his face was terrifying, because she'd seen it before, when she'd run into him dragging bodies or pieces of bodies from his barn.

She slammed her forehead against his face, and he let go and clutched his nose and bled and he wasn't grinning any more. She managed to hobble backwards a half-step before he grabbed her and shoved and she fell and twisted and landed hard. On her right side.

The next thing she knew, Lucas was standing over her, baseball bat over his shoulder. Something in her head dredged up the fact that Lucas _hated_ Little League and sandbagged the games so hard that Dad gave up trying to get him into sports.

Lucas hefted the bat.

"C'mon, Zoe." She managed to make that out over the ringing before he brought the bat down. "Let's play a little game."

* * *

He wheeled Zoe across the lawn, after first making sure her arms were duct-taped to the wheelchair tightly. She was probably going to be out for a while, which gave him a chance to finalize things. He pushed her through the doors of the barn and wheeled her back to the work room.

Eveline was already there when they arrived. Both Evies, actually. The brat was sitting in his swivel chair, grinning like a fool. The old woman was sitting off to the side, head down. Part of him wondered how the decrepit broad wheeled herself out here, but of course he couldn't ask that. Thinking about it would probably keep him up all night, though.

"Did you see the look on her face?" Lucas asked with a grin, stepping around Zoe. His sister was slumped bonelessly in her chair, doing a pretty good impression of the old woman, come to think of it. This was going to be fun. Damn, he wondered why he hadn't tried this earlier. "I had the bomb do that that, by the way. Make the click noise. No reason to have the bomb make a sound when she tripped it, except her face was _priceless_. Click, delay, boom!"

He remembered hearing comedy was all about timing. He wasn't big on longwinded explanation of why things were funny, but the _delay_ made that bomb. The face look on Zoe's right when it went off was priceless.

Eveline sat in the office chair and nodded. The little girl Eveline. "You're right, it was funny."

Damn right it was.

He could've sworn the old woman's lips turned upwards the slightest bit when the little girl said "And it was funny when she hit you."

That little _bitch_.

"Yeah, well, she's gonna regret that." Lucas said. He had short notice to prep the barn, so he didn't have time to do a lot or finish up any of the more promising projects he had plans for. Assuming Zoe was anything like the rest of the family, there'd be plenty of time for another game later. Right now, he just set up some little surprises, and wrangled some of Evie's little friends.

* * *

They were sitting at the table, playing checkers. Lucas was winning. He always won.

She didn't like losing, didn't like Lucas teasing her. Sometimes he got real bad teasing her. He would keep at it and keep at it, and Mama would scold him, but then tell her he didn't mean anything by it, then half-ask, half-tell Lucas if she was right.

Then he'd win again and start teasing her again.

He moved his piece, she moved hers. She had noticed a while ago that he was starting to lose more and more pieces when they'd play. Like she was getting better at it. They kept going back and forth. He was always talking. Lucas moved a piece, and that left a gap for her to jump his piece, and another of his pieces, and another, all the way to the back of the board. She tentatively raised one of her pieces, and jumped over his first one, and his second, and she watched the grin on his face disappear.

Evie leaned forward, propping her elbows on the table and resting her chin on her hands. She liked watching them play. This was nice. A lazy Saturday afternoon. Just her and her big brother and her little sister.

And the knife.

She didn't have a little sister.

Evie grinned, and Lucas picked up the knife.

* * *

Zoe moaned, and Evie perked up in the office chair. Behind her, the old woman's head barely raised. Zoe herself moved in slow motion, head wobbling to the side. She was doing a pretty good impression of the old woman. Then, all of a sudden, her eyes went wide and she went tense and tried to thrash her way out of the chair.

"Hey sis, howya feelin'?" She went still and gazed at him.

She stared at him, saying nothing. She forced herself to try to remain calm, her face went from a look of panic to annoyance. Like he had just taped over some of her shows or something. She wasn't that great an actor.

"C'mon cat got you're tongue?" This was an actually unique opportunity. He couldn't exactly speak his mind, but it was nice having a captive audience who knew the score. Conversations with Ma and Pa pretty much devolved into talking about Evie, and most of the other people he talked to just screamed about having a family or cried what was going on, why me.

Zoe already knew what was up. Her eyes narrowed; and she did a great job covering up a tremor in your voice. "What do _you_ want, Lucas."

"To play a game. I thought we established that." He said, then as an afterthought added "Then again, maybe you weren't hearing too clear back then. Hey, why were you at the old house anyways?"

"There's a cure!" She said. Was she trying to bargain? Lotta people tried that at this stage of the game. Offering money, pleading that they had a family, saying they'd do _anything_ if he just wouldn't have his fun "Mia left a note about Evie when we found her. There's a cure, and if we make it we could…"

"Ah-ah-ah. Don't you try to trick me now, Zoe. There ain't nothing wrong with me, Hell, I feel fine." It struck him that he could've punctuated the point by doing a little self-mutilation. He grabbed two fingers on his left hand and wrenched. It did hurt, but it was worth it for the reaction he got.

Zoe flinched. Looked at him like he was crazy. That that was cool. Maybe something a little more drastic would be even better? He wasn't gonna chop his arm off for a visitor, but something nice and gory would make for a great introduction next time.

Zoe had recovered, and fell back to pretending to be annoyed at him, rather than terrified. He had to admit, he could definitely empathize with trying to get out from under Evie's thumb. But Zoe was a little too late; he was already free. And unlike her, he wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. His fingers snapped back into place, and he wiggled them inches from her face. "Thanks to Evie here, I don't have to worry about a thing."

Zoe was silent.

"Of course, that begs the question… just how durable am I? Something I've been wondering about for a long time, Zoe." He had. "Of course, I'm not that eager to _really_ stress test it on me, ya hear me?"

Zoe was silent.

"Now then, maybe you aren't that durable. After all, you and Evie seem to be on the outs. But I'm thinking maybe, just maybe, you might be taking after the rest of the family a little more than you let on?" He noticed she tensed when he said that. "So, I'm thinking we might see something interesting. What do you have to say about that?"

Zoe was silent.

This was starting to annoy him. Beg a little, whine about the good old days, fucking do something. "C'mon Zoe, why the silent treatment? Afraid you don't actually take after the rest of us."

She actually replied this time. And typical Zoe, she picked the exact right thing to say get under his fucking skin. "Least I'm not constantly leaping at Evie's beck and ca…"

She didn't finish the sentence; his hands were on her throat and he was yelling at her to shut up. She was tied to a goddamn chair with a legful of shrapnel. She wasn't so goddamn _smart_ now, eyes bugging out and face turning blue. She didn't get to _flaunt_ the fact she didn't have to listen to that withered freak. She did not get to hold that over his head.

She thrashed to try and dislodge him.

"Lucas." Evie said.

God, it felt good to shut at least _one_ of them up, even if given the choice, it would've been Evie.

"Lucas!"

Right. Had to put on a show for little sister, didn't he? He let go of Zoe's neck and she coughed and gasped for air. He took in a deep breath himself, and grinned. "C'mon now Zoe, you know you shouldn't be saying mean things about little Evie now, right?"

God he hated saying that.

Zoe glared at him, then turned her head to glare at Evie. "She's not our sister."

She was preaching to the goddamn choir. But, he had his job to think of. "Zoe, that is _hurtful_. Why, she hasn't given up on you, even if Mom and Dad have."

The look on her face was delightful. It lasted only a split second, before she glared at him with all the hate she could manage, but she was _crushed_. Since the day she was born she was always the good one, the one who could do no wrong. Evie turning that upside down was one of the benefits of having that little brat around. "Don't worry, I'm sure they'll forgive you. Maybe. But me and Evie, we just want to play a little game is all?"

She was silent.

"Don't wanna play?" He wasn't working at sounding cheerful anymore, his anger had cooled. Zoe had shut up, and now the fun was going to begin. "Nobody ever does."

"What's you're stupid game? Something you saw in _Saw_?" Now that was just hurtful. Admittedly, yes, he had definitely did the reverse beartrap once or twice, but give him _a little_ credit. He worked hard to come up with ideas, even on a limited time table.

"Y'know, when we were kids, Dad some folks from town would do up this barn like a maze at Halloween? Same principal." He had a crystal clear memory of Zoe the first time Dad had done it, getting lost in the wee small hours in the morning and crying over something following her. She was like, three or something. And… well, he might've contributed to her fear of monsters. "'Course, this time, there might actually be something in the maze."

He got up from his chair and walked over to his workbench. Got a pair of pliers. Zoe looked rather pale as he opened and closed them a few times; wincing at the sound of metal-on-metal tapping and a little girl's giggle. "Now then, it wouldn't be fair to throw you in there with all that extra weight…"

He tapped the tip of the pliers against a protruding nail, eliciting a yelp from Zoe. She quickly clenched her teeth and glared at Lucas.

She made a _lot_ more noise by the time he got most of the nails out.

It was beautiful.

* * *

 _Plink._

"Now sis, it wouldn't hurt as much if you didn't squirm so much…. Uh, guess I could've told you that earlier." He said, followed by a that goddamn hyena laugh.

 _Plink._

Her voice was hoarse from the screaming by now, and she was trembling. And she hated that, because it was amusing Lucas and Evie. The little monster was leaning right over Lucas's shoulder, grinning ear-to-ear.

 _Plink._

Lucas seemed satisfied with the end result, and held up the can of hardware to her face. She didn't look, and he sighed and just tossed it over his shoulder. He returned to the workbench and rooted around again.

There was something off about him.

Mama and Papa weren't recognizable any more. Mama could be stern if they misbehaved, and Dad liked his alcohol a bit too much, but they were charitable, kind. They weren't perfect, but they tried their best to do right by their children and their neighbors. This all started because Dad went into the bayou to help people after a hurricane, after all.

Lucas was recognizable. While her parent's personalities had flipped, turning them into cruel sadists… Lucas was just… magnified.

"C'mon sis." He said as he circled around and began pushing the wheelchair. "Let the games begin."

* * *

 **Author's Note** : I had hoped to get this up sooner, but I was sidetracked by work. Sorry. Hopefully I'll get this done before End of Zoe and Not a Hero come out and bring an end to the Baker siblings' stories. Also I'd like to thank Ferric for being there to bounce ideas off of.

Happy Halloween, folks.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: Resident Evil belongs to Capcom.

* * *

Zoe was very still as Lucas wheeled her around the barn, doing her best to shut him out. She was securely taped to the chair, and thrashing would only waste her energy. Thrashing would also only amuse Lucas and Eveline, and some spiteful part of her held that was worse. Her leg didn't hurt much anymore, hopefully that meant she could put weight on it when she needed to. She tried not to think about what else that could mean.

"…now, I tried to wrangle four of Evie's little pets, ya know? Four of them in a maze, geddit?" Lucas then paused and glanced aside, with a faraway look. "'Course, they're pretty ornery, and I only got three… nah, I did get fou—five."

He then burst out laughing. "I guess you'll have to count 'em for me."

She did her best to ignore him and the wet, gurgling shrieks she could occasionally hear echoing down the hallways. She needed to keep a level head to try and figure a way out. There was a reason Lucas always gotten second place in his engineering competitions. He was obsessive and smart, but got sloppy.

Lucas had been busy with remodeling. He pushed her through a hall she couldn't remember existing, before unbolting a door in front of a large open space. Bales of hay, random garbage that Lucas had amassed, and barbed wire made up a maze. Lucas wheeled her around to face him and leaned in close as he backed the chair up to the to of the ramp.

"Now, there's a door at the other end of the barn, understand? You find that door and…"

"Get to the door and get out. I know how a maze works, Lucas." She shot at him. His sadistic grin briefly inverted itself, into a deep scowl. It was petty, but it wasn't like _not_ insulting him would've prevented anything. She wanted him mad, told herself. It would make him sloppy. Or at least he'd be pissed at her. His grin had returned as he wheeled her around, to face him. Whipping out a pocket knife, he cut her left arm free. Then he planted his foot on her chest and shoved her down the ramp. The wheelchair crashed into something and she lurched forward.

Lucas waved from the doorway. "Good luck, Sis!"

She used her free hand to flip him the bird.

The door slammed shut, and she didn't even wait to hear the bolt lock before she frantically began tearing at the tape binding her right arm with her teeth and left hand.

* * *

He flopped down in a chair, breathing hard. Soon as Zoe was locked in, he raced his way to a computer. It was an agonizing wait for it to come on from sleep, and he pursed his lips and exhaled sharply, tapping the spacebar for emphasis. Signed in and after a bit of loading, he cued up the cameras he'd placed in the barn. Scrolling through until he found the ones best-placed for his game.

On one camera Zoe already had both arms free and was working on her legs.

On another, a mold monster was lurching forward. Maybe towards Zoe, if he recalled the setup correctly.

On a third, yeah, that mold was heading in Zoe's direction. Hopefully he'd get there before she got out. He almost regretted freeing one of her arms, but what was the point of the maze if the rat wasn't going to run it?

He cycled back to the camera on her wheelchair. Zoe was on her feet now. Walked to the end of the corridor and turned a corner, only to step back and race back to where she had started as Evie's stupid pet had _finally_ showed up. It wobbled after her, but Zoe was moving faster. That was fine. A grin started to spread across his face.

Enjoyed the show.

* * *

The maze wasn't much of one, she could actually see the other door, with "EXIT" in day glow paint over it. There were bales of hay and various junk forming walls, although huge empty spaces were just a tangle of barbed wire. There was almost a straight line of sight to the exit.

She wasn't keen on taking that straight line, though. Too much barbed wire in the way. Getting hooked with one of those things following her...

She forced herself to slow down. The thing was still on her heels, but it wasn't just the one thing she had to deal with. There had to be more in here, right? She had to keep her head on a swivel, making sure not to run headlong into any other monster.

She hit the corner and turned, noticing a pile of straw in the middle of the path. The floor was littered with strands of straw, but this was conspicuous in how much there was, neat little pile in the middle of the path. The thing was nipping at her heels. Lucas wouldn't be that obvious, would he?

He did whine about short notice.

Inhaling, she backed away, bouncing on her feet. Out the corner of her eye, she saw the thing reaching for her. She dashed forward and jumped, landing free and clear of the pile, then scrambled forward. The mold slowly wobbled as it turned around. That was something about them, they could move fast, but also bumbled about drunkenly while hunting.

It continued to lope forward, paying no heed to the pile of straw in its path.

There was a bright flash and a bang. The explosion _rippled_ the thing's body briefly, before it's legs turned into a fine mist and it fell onto its back. The smell of acrid smoke and rotting vegetables hit her, almost making her gag. The thing flailed its arms angrily trying to claw its way onto its belly.

The bomb probably wouldn't have killed her, just fucked her legs up again. With the thing chasing her.

* * *

"Sonuva bitch!" Lucas growled.

"What's wrong?" Evie asked, and he sighed. Then couldn't help himself but let out an inarticulate growl when she added "You shouldn't use that language, by the way."

"One of your friends got hurt in the maze". He knew she didn't care about them. She gave them stupid names like "Mr. Smiles" or referred to them by the names of the people the mold grew out of, but she didn't care. She didn't even really get amused by their deaths. She'd just mutter about Mr. Smiles being gone and make a new Mr. Smiles out of the muck when it crossed her twisted little mind.

"That's too bad." She said, utterly lacking in sincerity. Damn right it was bad. It was a goddamn fucking tragedy. She hadn't given him any help in getting the stupid thing to the maze. He had to prod it and coax it to follow him. Then the stupid fucking thing had just walked onto a pressure plate. Eveline knew there were bombs, why didn't she tell it to watch out?

Goddamn it. His face flushed. The damn thing had tipped Zoe off about the traps. Fuck it. Fuck the stupid molded idiots. Fuck Zoe's stupid smug face when she figured out the trap. She did not get to fucking think he was an idiot. She had always been around when he made mistakes, with that goddamn face. Always ready to point out his flaws. And god damnit, she was still doing after being duct-taped to a chair and tossed in a monster-filled maze. But this wasn't his fucking fault. Evie could've had the stupid thing avoid it.

"Are you angry she saw the…"

"The pressure plate. Yes." He growled, before forcing himself to say an apology for his curtness. He took a deep breath. This was fine. This was okay. Zoe was going to go down swinging, that was fine. Her putting up a little bit of a fight before dying was fine. In the future, he'd have to be careful about traps and Eveline's pets.

Stupid fucking things.

Zoe was outpacing the remaining half of the molded. Turned another corner, and he switched to another camera. It was a bad angle. Two more molded, lurching forward, presumably towards Zoe? He couldn't quite see.

He couldn't quite make out what was going on, when suddenly things began to fall from the ceiling. God damnit, they set off another fucking trap.

* * *

She _briefly_ allowed herself to get distracted looking up at the ceiling. How the fuck had Lucas managed to get all that junk up there? She had barely managed to spot the wire. Then two monsters rounded the corner and the nearest on took care of the wire for her.

Sawblades and knives littered the floor, alongside the twitching remnants of one of the monsters, head crushed by a cinderblock. A pitchfork lay, tines buried downwards. The molded in the distance lumbered forward.

She eyed the pitchfork.

She wrapped her hands around the handle and tugged. And the stupid thing didn't budge as the monster got closer. She tugged again, and again, letting out a swear. She frantically pushed and pulled the thing like a lever, trying to get it unstuck. The thing rasped, and she thought of Lucas, watching on and laughing as she pulled.

She almost fell on her ass when the pitchfork came loose.

The monster didn't seem to care that she was pointing the pitchfork at it. They didn't seem to care about much; she'd seen them lumber about, armless, with the same shambling gait, not noticing they were missing a limb. Whatever. The pitchfork was the only thing she had that let her stay out of its reach.

The thing raised its arms as lurched into striking distance. And the aimed the pitchfork underneath the arms and shoved.

The tines of the pitchfork sank all the way into thing's torso. She braced the handle against her hip, trying to keep the thing from getting any closer. It swung its arms wildly and she pulled her face back, the thing's claws coming within an inch of her face. They spun and swayed; her skidding backward as the thing pushed forward. Zoe struggled to not lose her footing. Banana-sized teeth clicked together as its jaws opened and closed.

Zoe shoved, trying to force the thing backwards. It grabbed onto the pitchfork and _pulled_. With a sickening squelching sound, the pitchfork drove even deeper, the tines going all the way through its back. The black sludge in its torso was damaged past the point of offering any resistance, and the handle of the pitchfork sank through even more. It took a step forward, skewered, but not apparently noticing it.

Shit.

She let the thing have the pitchfork, ducking under its arms and scrambling off to the side. It roared. She ran.

* * *

Lucas sat up in his chair. Goddamn cameras weren't positioned that great. Zoe and the thing were half in a blindspot. For a moment there, he thought it had gotten her and let out a whoop. Then she ran away. Had she just folded and died like she was supposed to, it would've been unsatisfying. On the other, between Evie's incessant commentary and Zoe he wanted the game to end. This should've been hilarious, but instead it had become annoying.

He kinda wished he had rigged up an intercom or something. Just to distract her. Throw out some misinformation. Make it so she didn't get the final word in.

"She's gonna get out." Evie whined.

"She's not gonna get out." Lucas assured her, drumming his fingers against the wooden table.

Evie was not helping. "I think she's found the way to the door."

No shit. He had a couple hours to move shit and set some traps, wasn't exactly going to be like the one in the myth. Still, the fact Zoe had made it this far annoyed him. Part of him was annoyed she'd made it this far. Each time she dodged a trap was an insult, especially when one of Evie's toothy little motherfuckers set it off instead. She was supposed to be panicking and getting carved up by Evie's pets, and every time she got rid of one of them, or dodged a trap, or anything, that meant he hadn't outsmarted her.

Still, he cooled his anger. So what if she got to the end, reached the door? It wasn't like that really was a way out of here.

* * *

She reached for the door and froze. She pulled her hand back. Lucas was... when you got down to it, predictable. If he could screw you over for laughs he would. He didn't want her to win. He didn't want her to have a chance to win. He wanted her to _suffer_.

Between the blood pounding in her ears and the sounds of the thing behind her, she could hear an almost imperceptible hum coming from the door.

The thing behind her banged the handle of the pitchfork against the walls in its awkward shambling. She turned to face it. This was going to get dicey.

She yelped as claws raked her side as she pushed by.

The thing was turning to face her, and she shoved. It stumbled to the side, closer to the door, but not close enough.

She dove at the thing, avoiding the pitchfork handle and slamming into what accounted for its midsection. New wounds were opened up in her back as it brought it's claws down but she managed to stagger it. It was inches from the door. She wrapped her arms around a leg and pulled, and it stumbled backwards, off balance.

The thing shrieked as the metal tines of the pitchfork made contact with the door and sparks flew. The already dim lights went out. The thing bubbled and hissed and flailed and sticky black gunk hit her as it writhed. She choked back vomit and backed away.

The thing thrashed and screamed and sparked, eventually igniting. It staggered forward, shedding burning flecks of itself in its weakening effort to pursue her.

In a barn full of hay.

Lucas swore. He could've done a better job wiring the door up. Could've cleared out the hay. Zoe got fucking lucky. She wasn't supposed to fucking do that. She was supposed to get torn the fuck apart. God damn it. She was still locked in there, so now he had to go in and get her out. He got up and reached for the gun. He'd picked it up when Zoe had lost it.

She thought she'd won?

Fuck it, they'd have to play again. Nothing fancy to amuse Eveline. Something complicated took way more planning. He and Zoe wold go back to basics. Something that didn't have so many moving parts, so many variables. Something she couldn't just luck her way out of or run away from. She wasn't going to do to much running after she got a bullet in each kneecap.

"Where are you going?" Evie asked.

"To get Zoe."

"Think she won, right?"

"We're goin' best two outta three."

"What if she wins next time?

He didn't dignify that. He just stomped his way back to the maze until he stopped dead in his tracks. He could smell it, burning wood and hay. He could hear the crackling of flames.

 _Shit_.

Zoe was burning the place down? He needed to get a handle on this, now. He had too much in the barn, to many projects, to let her torch the place. God fucking damn it. He wheeled around; had a fire extinguisher somewhere. Had to get at it, fast.

"Where are you going?" Evie asked, curious.

"To fucking put the fire out!" He yelled. _How could she be so goddamn calm?_

"Didn't you want to see someone burn?"

"Not us!"

* * *

She kept her head below the level of the smoke, crawling away from the heat. Lucas would try to salvage the barn. A fire would attract attention, and it would destroy his projects. He's have to come put out the fire. Probably. He had to.

She turned the corner and saw a flash of teeth. She managed to raise her left arm just in time to block the big teeth that had been aiming for her throat. They instead cut right down to the bone. She screamed as the thing wrenched itself back. Her elbow and shoulder protested, she could feel the ligaments being stretched far more than they should have. Finally, the flesh it clamped down on tore loose and its weight shifted. She scrambled to a standing position and kicked it in the face hard enough to upend it.

She forced herself to her feet, left arm hanging limp. Smoke stung her eyes, and filled her lungs as she attempted to catch her breath. She kept her eyes locked on the creature, which swallowed its prize and growled at her. Still hungry.

It was the crawling one, the one she tricked into getting its legs blown off. It dropped down on its forearms, and leapt. She sidestepped, crying out when razor sharp claws raked her right arm.

Ma had old photos she had taken back on a vacation with Dad. Europe.

Big Ben.

The Eiffel Tower.

The _Plaza de Toros_ in Pamplona.

It leapt, she dodged. Not nearly with the flourish and style of a matador, but the spirit remained the same. She was light-headed and stumbling thanks to blood loss and smoke inhalation. Luckily for her, the monster was not in much better shape. Its leaps were clumsy, it was slow to turn around. She felt the heat of the fire at her back, and forced herself to step back towards it. The creature dropped down low on its arms and growled. She looks a deep breath, sweat pouring down her brow. She was so close to the fire.

It leapt, and she more fell off to the side than dodged. But it was enough; the thing sailed past her and into the fire. She dragged herself away as it shrieked and thrashed and burned, only forcing herself to her feet when she was sure it wouldn't come out of the fire to get her.

Her head was beginning swim; the fire was eating up the oxygen in the room, and between that, the pain from the dozen open wounds she'd gotten, and the heat, she was tired. She heard a metallic clang far behind her. She heard the hiss of a fire extinguisher and her brother's swearing. Half-lucid, she thought it was good he was mad. Asshole deserved it.

He yelled her name. Followed by more hissing. Then something red and metal sailed overhead. Fire extinguisher.

It had grown darker since he showed up.

He called her name again. He was mad. That was good.

No.

She shook her head. She wasn't out of the woods yet. She needed to get out of here.

There was a gunshot. And he yelled her name again.

That jolted her back.

She took a deep breath as silently as she could. She lifted her left arm, biting her tongue to suppress a cry. She needed to know if she could use both hands. It was an effort, but she managed to force her hand into a fist. She didn't think about the fact that the bleeding had already stopped. Or that her arm had been useless only a few minutes earlier. That didn't matter.

Lucas was swearing and calling her name. That mattered.

She crawled again, doing her best to support as much of her weight on her right arm as she could. She heard him yelling again. She kept quiet. Lucas was shouting his head off, and stomping in her direction. She placed her back against a wall and crept silently to the corner, taking slow, deep breaths.

Lucas was raving again. Something about best two out of three. His voice was getting closer. He was _mad_. He didn't like to be outsmarted, especially by his sister. She took a deep breath. Just waited for when the voice was right next to the corner.

* * *

Something slammed into him in the dark. He hit the wall and dropped the gun, swearing. This was stupid. He got pissed, and didn't think this through. He kicked out a leg, feeling it catch something. Zoe let out an "oomph" as she hit the floor.

He didn't get a chance to savor that as something hit his knee and he buckled.

The two of them struggled in the darkness. He wasn't sure what he was hitting, except when it was soft and whiny he was pretty sure it was Zoey. When something hit him in the nose and there was a crunch, he was pretty sure that was Zoe, too. They both attempted to get the gun, only for it to go clattering away in the darkness.

Her hand reached for his face, fingernails digging into his forehead and brow, trying to find his eyeballs. He pulled back and twisted his head away, blindly trying to grapple her. He grabbed what he thought was an arm and his fingers sank into something wet and pulpy and Zoe screamed loud enough to make him wince.

He squeezed harder and the fight left her.

A few kicks where he assumed her ribs were, and he began dragging her towards the door. Towards light. "You're a really stubborn bitch, Zoe Baker."

Dear God, was she going to regret tonight.

As he neared the exit, he realized the spot on the arm he had grabbed was a giant bite mark. Evie's little pets weren't totally fucking useless, after all. Speaking of, if Evie wanted to see Zoe hurt, he was going to give her so much that she'd get sick of it. Where was the brat, by the way. "Evie! C'mon, don't you have any suggestions?"

Zoe mumbled something. It was some pathetic mewling.

"Wh-what was that?" He couldn't help but smirk. "C'mon Zoe, speak up!"

He squeezed the bite mark again, and she yelled. Not as loud as before, but they had the rest of the night ahead of them. Her right arm was cradled underneath her.

"I said, what was that?" He dropped to a crouch, letting her arm go. "C'mon 'No, Lucas, please'? 'I'm sorry, Lucas'? 'Evie ain't our sister'? Quit mumbling and talk to me, sis."

She propped herself up in a sitting position against the wall and looked at him, gritting her teeth in pain. She was shaking. Pain or fear, either one was acceptable. He leaned in close, and put a hand against her throat. "I said, what were you saying"

It was still a tiny, pitiful whine, but this time he managed to make out "You're predictable."

Then she hit him in the face with something metallic.

"You stupid fucking bitch!" Lucas said; he had landed on something hard, face first, and clutched his eye; something told him it was going to swell. Goddamn Zoe. She was gonna fucking regret this. She was gonna…

"Lucas!" She shouted. He looked at her, wincing, trembling, right arm raised at him. Holding the gun. Her eyes were wide, jaw was set. She looked like she could kill someone.

God damn it. He'd gotten careless. Should've just let the fire do the job.

She forced herself to her feet, grimacing as she slowly rose. Her right arm fell to the side. She was in rough shape, clothes stained with blood and black tar, several barely-closed wounds on her torso and shoulders to go with the bite mark in her arm. This could be an opportunity. He stood up, freezing halfway when she glared at him and raised the pistol again.

"Now Zoe. Evie and I just wanted to have a little fun with you is all" He said, only half-affecting the stammer. Staring down a gun barrel was not in the plan for today. Blaming Evie might work. He was just her poor brother, mind-controlled by the monster. She couldn't blame him for anything he did. It was all Evie. "Like when we were kids."

She shook. Good ol' Zoe, she didn't have the stomach to actually pull the trigger on her big brother. She was falling for it. Tentatively, he reached out a hand. "Ya see here—"

He didn't see the blow coming, as the butt of the pistol met his jaw.

He wound up sprawled on the ground, room spinning. He blinked, trying to clear his vision. He tried to prop himself up, only for Zoe straddle him and hold him down by the throat with a shaking left arm. He broke eye contact immediately on seeing the hateful glare she was giving him, looked around the room. A few pieces of debris were around. Talking her down wasn't working, he just had to distract her and he was pretty sure he could…

He managed to get out "guh…" before Zoe brought the gun down. His hands covered his mouth and he tasted blood when she brought it down again.

And again.

* * *

And again.

Zoe kept hitting Lucas long after his muscles went slack. She swore and clawed and hit. Fatigue got the better of her and the fury she rained down on him became less bone-crunching and more pathetic, but she kept hitting him. She just wanted to keep hitting him. Lucas was a monster, a twisted little sadist who deserved every bit of pain he got. She'd be doing the world a fucking favor ending him.

It took a long time for it to dawn on her that Evie was watching. She had her hands behind her back and was stooped forward, examining Lucas. She looked rather pleased.

She raised the gun at the monster in the shape of a little girl and pulled the trigger.

-Click-

-Clickclickclick-

Her eyes widened and she checked the gun over. It was heavy, it had to be loaded. Had she broken something?

Her gaze shifted from the gun back to Evie, scowling. Evie smiled.

She was soaking wet, burned, bloodied, and bruised. And she had hit Lucas hard enough, or enough times, or both, to break the gun she was pistol whipping him with. Fucking Christ. She looked down, at the pathetic, still mess underneath her. She was trying to kill her brother. Evie had gotten into her head like she had gotten into everyone else's and…

"Was it me?" Evie said, cocking her head curiously. "Maybe it was just you."

Zoe gaped. And Eveline giggled. "You…"

"You're such a bullhead Zoe." Evie said, less annoyed and more amused than when she usually berated her for being stubborn. For whatever reason, Evie had a hard time making Zoe do anything… that Zoe hadn't wanted to do.

Lucas was… he did terrible things. To other people, and tonight, to her. He had every intention of having her die in this stupid maze, or if she lived, thinking up worse things to do to her. That was Evie's fault, she twisted her family to be her puppets. But Zoe? Wanting to hurt Lucas? Wanting to kill him?

"Are you going to keep hitting him?" She wasn't sure if Eveline wanted her to or not. She looked down at the mess that was her brother's face again.

She wasn't sure if she wanted to or not. Lucas would get better. You either died here, or you got better. And when you got better, you usually got worse. He'd come after her again; his ego was bruised, so he'd want payback. Maybe he'd waste time planning something elaborate. Maybe he'd decide his stupid torture fantasies got him dinged up this time, so he'd just try to kill her. He'd keep at it.

Zoe took a deep breath.

And so would she. As many times as it took to convince him to stop playing around, that was the trick since she was a kid; once Lucas realized he had a chance of losing, the game would be stupid and he'd find something else to do. She'd been dodging her folks for years now. She was stuck here, doing that. And if Lucas wanted to play his stupid games with her now?

She'd keep going.

After an eternity, Zoe rose to her feet, wincing painfully. Eveline frowned. "I know, I'm no fun."

Evie smirked. No argument, no annoying pleas, no threats, no bringing up Ma and Dad. She just looked happy. What did she get out of this? Probably the same thing as Lucas; she was just twisted and liked seeing things get hurt.

But Zoe didn't.

It wasn't over, not by a long shot. Evie was creeping in, always trying to creep in. Ma, Pa, and Lucas were monsters. Zoe herself was… getting there. But she wasn't there yet. They'd keep trying to kill her or bring her too heel. And she'd keep trying to get a cure and get away.

Even if it was only to prove she wasn't a monster yet.

She limped her way past the monster in the skin of a little girl, wincing when she heard a "Good night, _sister._ "

* * *

Lucas couldn't breathe. That was the first thing he thought of when he came to. He rolled over onto her side and spat out blood and teeth. In drew in a deep breath, and mostly blood came down his nostrils into his windpipe, and he coughed up blood again.

"Oh, your awake." Little girl Eveline was standing over him, looking down curiously.

"Whuh…" Okay, he was alive, that was… the pain wasn't… he'd get better, that's all. He'd be fine in a few days. Then he would find Zoe and make her pay. There wasn't going to be any mistakes next time. He'd be sure of that. When he figured things out. Later. Right now, he was find just laying here.

"Zoe won." Evie nodded, and smiled broadly.

"Whuh…" She did not need to remind him of that.

"Thank you." Evie said, leaning in way too close.

"Whuh…" was about the most articulate he could be. Why was she thanking him?

"Thank you for Zoe." As if that explained _anything_.

"Whuh…" Evie had explained _nothing_.

"She's finally getting to be fun!" she said with a giggle. "I really think you two should play more often."

He fucking hated his sisters.

* * *

Author's Note: I'd like to thank Sapphire Basil, Pipn123, and The Rookie Author for their reviews. And I'd especially like to thank Ferric for being an excellent sounding board for ideas for this happy little fic.

I was really disappointed in REVII that choosing Zoe really changed nothing, and honestly I thought she was a more interesting character than Ethan or Mia. And because I'm a complete asshole, I express liking a character through kicking them. Thoroughly and repeatedly.

Lucas was fun to write. He's such an evil douchebag, the perfect blend of smug older brother, murderous hillbilly, and sadistic death trap guy. Trying to get into his head was fun, and then having him repeatedly get hit in the face was also fun. Here's to hoping he gets boulder-punched into next week in _Not a Hero_.


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